Visiting Time

Published June 27, 2011 by
Mae McDonnell

When I went to your town on the wide open shore,
Oh I must confess, I was drawn, I was drawn to the ocean

It is summer and we live by the ocean, which means that we’ve had a steady stream of visitors for the last month, which is an excellent thing indeed. I’ve also been doing my share of visiting, having popped down to Virginia in the beginning of June to meet one very excellent baby. I’m afraid I have fallen rather in love and have been compelled to knit and buy small things.

This was followed with a far too short but excellent visit with a very old friend and a new friend, where we spent most of our time on the beach in both bad weather and good. There are some friends that you can just pick up with after any amount of time away and the time spent together is so restful. Too short, but incredibly wonderful.

Last weekend, my aunt came for a visit, where we went to see lots and lots of art in jewelry format. The jewels were so scintillating that after two rooms, I actually had eyestrain. I found the exhibit really inspiring from a knitting design perspective; I have some ideas in my head that will be hitting paper soon. Then we took a day to wander up to Boston, taking the Port Jefferson ferry over to Connecticut, then stopping for lunch in Mystic. I got to tourist Boston for the first time – despite morning thunderboomers and storms, we made it to Fenway Park (and I sat on the Green Monster) and walked quite a lot of the historic trail and waved at Sam Adams’ grave (why yes, that is my beer of choice) and went shopping at Quincy Market (where I proceeded to get overwhelmed by a cosmetic purchase, which you’d think I’d have gotten down pat by the age of thirty-one). Dinner was excellent Vietnamese, which sent us off to sleep, only to awaken to a day at the Science Museum, which is pretty much the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Lightning bolts and amazing ship models? In one place? Awesome.

The social life continue this weekend with some more very dear friends coming up for a visit and barbeque and FIREWORKS IN THE BACKYARD. We’re not all that patriotic, but we sure do like setting things on fire. Just hopefully not ourselves.